10 Things Thursday

1. Graham will be born 5 weeks from TODAY!! Boy, am I ready. I'm down to weekly visits and ultrasounds, and my doctor will continue to monitor as best he cans to make sure my incision is holding up until December 9th rolls around. Right now baby boy is 4 1/2 lbs, and if he keeps up the pace, he'll be 7 lbs by his birthday!!

2. The girls are thrilled about the new baby. For Marianna, I believe that excitement is based on experience and expectation. For Adrienne, not so much. I can't wait to see how she reacts to having a baby around, because right now I don't have much of a prediction. I really won't be surprised by anything.

3. I still feel great, but I'm wondering if I'll be able to paint my own toes one more time before delivery. I told Nathan it might be up to him, and he didn't respond.

4. Marianna's almost-spend-the-night birthday party is a week from Saturday, and preparations for the big day are in full swing. Actually, I chose this party theme because I thought the party planning would be pretty easy, and so far that has definitely been true. All the girls are coming in their pjs, and we will be eating pizza and popcorn, watching the Tinkerbell movie, and making fairy tutus.

5. Lately Adrienne has become a singer. Her music interest is a new development, because up until 3 months ago she didn't want me singing, the radio playing, or anything in between. But all that has changed, and we're so glad it has. Her sweet, super high soprano voice can be heard belting out "Happy Birthday" or "Jesus Loves Me" any time of the day. I think I can safely say we are all enjoying music a little bit more now that Adrienne has not only ceased to object, but is participating wholeheartedly.

6. On Monday night we wrapped up soccer season number two for Marianna. This fall she played for a league at church and Nathan was the coach, a winning combo in fun if not on the score board. Fortunately, this league is all about fun and score was not kept, so the fact that we wouldn't have won a single game if anyone had bothered to keep up, doesn't really matter. It was certainly fun seeing her start to get the hang of it, a 180 from when she played in the Spring where the number of times she touched the ball all season could be counted on one hand.

7. Besides doctors appointments and violin lessons, our weekdays have been relatively free of weekly commitments, giving us the chance to fall into a daily schedule that has been wonderful. Marianna is loving school, and I'm loving it too. Of course we aren't doing anything official, so there is no pressure to have to get anything done. But most days we sit down in the morning and go through math, phonics, reading, Bible, and writing, while Adrienne watches Letter Factory, colors pictures, and sits in my lap and listens to Marianna read. I was worried much more about how Adrienne would react to an every day school time than Marianna, so I've been really happy to see she does just fine.

8. This time last year I was knee deep in half marathon training and running magazines. Now I'm lucky if I walk two miles at a moderate pace. I would be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to being able to run again. But not in the heat. Nothing could ever make me miss running enough to want to run in the kind of heat we had this summer.

9. Nathan is teaching through David Platt's Radical right now, and I have been deeply challenged from what I have read so far.

10. I hope everyone will come to Christmas in the Valley on Saturday!!!!!!!! You don't want to miss it!